Liquid-liquid phase equilibria in polymer solutions and polymer mixtures

The pressure dependence of liquid-liquid equilibria in weakly interacting binary macromolecular systems (homopolymer solutions and blends) will be discussed. The common origin of the separate high-temperature/low-temperature and high-pressure/low-pressure branches of demixing curves will be demonstrated by extending the study into the region of metastable liquid states including the undercooled, overheated and stretched states (i.e. states at negative pressures). The seemingly different response of the UCST-branch of solutions and blends when pressurized (pressure induced mixing for most polymer solutions, pressure induced demixing for most blends) will be explained in terms of the location of a hypercritical point found either at positive (most solutions) or negative pressure (most blends). Further, it is shown that the pressure dependence of demixing of homopolymer solutions and blends may be described using a 'master-curve' which, however, is sometimes partly masked by degradation or by vapour-liquid and/or solid-liquid phase transitions. Experimental results demonstrating the extension of liquid-liquid phase boundary curves into the metastable regions will be presented, and the existence of solubility islands in the vicinity of the hypercritical points discussed.